The official Blog for bikewalklee.org. BikeWalkLee is a community coalition raising public awareness and advocating for complete streets in Lee County, FL.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

BikeWalkLee on national webinar panel: Winning Bicycling and Walking Projects in TIGER

BikeWalkLee's Darla Letourneau was honored to be a panelist on a national webinar on April 1st, hosted by Advocacy Advance and attended by over 100 organizations across the country. The webinar was an opportunity for communities interested in applying for the TIGER 6 grant round tolearnfrom a national expert, an advocate (BikeWalkLee), and city planner about how to develop a winning TIGER application for biking and walking projects. Being a TIGER community continues to be a great way to shine the spotlight on Lee County.

The deadline for application for $600 million in federal TIGER 6 Discretionary Grant Program
is April 28th. So what better time than April 1st to hold a free
webinar on how to win those funds, featuring three experts on the
subject? Advocacy Advance brought to together:

That’s a federal expert, a local advocate, and a city planner – all with direct experience with the program.

Many thanks once again to our presenters for taking time out of their
busy schedules to share their experiences with us. For anyone planning
to apply for this round of TIGER, please watch the recorded webinar and download the PDF slides for helpful tips and inspiring stories from our speakers.

Recap from USDOT
Sahar laid out just what it is that USDOT
is looking for. Highly competitive TIGER grants are open to any
governmental entity for projects that are broadly multi-modal, and
multi-jurisdictional. Applications should be outcome-based and use
economic analysis and support agency performance measures. TIGER grants
also support President Obama and Secretary Foxx’s priority of “Ladders
of Opportunity” – projects that improve connections and remove barriers
to employment centers and promote workplace development. This year there
are grants for both capital projects and planning projects. Stay tuned
to the end of the webinar recording for some additional clarifying
questions and comments about planning grants.
Applicants should also be aware that Grants.gov will undergo maintenance
the weekend before the deadline. Grants.gov's Production System will go
offline on Saturday April 26, 2014 at 12:01am eastern, and will return
online on Monday April 28, 2014 at 6:00am eastern. Applicants are strongly urged to submit early before the Monday, April 28 - 5pm eastern deadline.

Lessons from a Local AdvocateBikeWalkLee’s Darla Letourneau
told the story of the county’s Complete Streets Network application.
They were able to focus political support on a single application (“It
took some sharp elbows”). For their successful round, the county worked
with the Alta Planning TIGER team to perfect their application. They
made the case based two main points, one regional strength and one
regional weakness – tourism and safety.

Also be sure to check out BikeWalkLee's TIGER resource page, which is updated on an on-going basis.

Lessons from a City Planner
The City of Rochester’s
application was to convert an underused inner loop highway into a
multi-modal boulevard, including sidewalks and a bicycling cycle-track.
City Planner Erik Frisch distilled their key lessons into the following:

Get Your Political House in Order – There should be no disagreement among major elected officials, especially Congressional delegation.

Have an Airtight Benefit Cost Analysis – USDOT needs to know that their investment will generate net positive returns. Also check out their detailed Benefit Cost Analysis for the Inner Loop.

Be Ready to Go – Prove that your project can and will meet TIGER requirements for obligation.

If at First You Don’t Succeed… – USDOT staff are very willing to discuss your application and ways to improve it in the future

Common ThemesIf at first you don’t success, try again. Both Lee
County and Rochester, NY, won TIGER funds on their third application.
Each round they received feedback to strengthen their application.Build political support. Both locations built support from elected officials for their applications – local, state, and especially federal officials.Work with TIGER staff. Don’t guess what project DOT
wants to fund. Work with them to craft a success application – up to the
application deadline, anyway. Visit the USDOT TIGER website for more info.

About BikeWalkLee Blog

This is the official Blog for BikeWalkLee.org. BikeWalkLee is a community coalition raising public awareness and advocating for complete streets in Lee County -- streets that are designed, built, operated and maintained for safe and convenient travel for all users: pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders of all ages and abilities.